Conservative caucus to consider amending motions to suspend senators

OTTAWA — The Conservative Senate caucus will meet Monday morning to discuss possible amendments to three motions that would suspend embattled senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau without pay or benefits.

Government Leader in the Senate Claude Carignan, who introduced the original motions, told CBC’s French network, Radio-Canada, that his caucus could craft new motions Monday as long as there is consensus among party members.

It’s an announcement that riles Senate Opposition Leader James Cowan, who has publicly denounced the way the red chamber is trying its members.

“Instead of having this thing dealt with in the Senate, where Sen. Carignan has said it should be done . . . now it’s going to be settled in the Conservative caucus in private,” Cowan said. “That doesn’t sound like a fair and open process to me.”

Last week, Cowan introduced amendments that would turn the senators’ cases over to a special committee. He said this would give the senators a fairer trial and address concerns of those worried about due process in current proceedings.

“There are a lot Conservative senators who are very concerned about the way the government proposes to do this, so I hope they’re going to have an opportunity (Monday) to try to persuade the government to change its mind,” Cowan said. “What I would hope is that Conservative caucus would say, ‘We not only have to do the right thing, we have to appear to do the right thing and do it in the right way. Let’s have the proper process.’ And I would hope that what they would say is ‘we need to send this to a committee.’”

Hints that the Tory majority in the Senate was thinking of revising senators’ sanctions emerged Friday while the Senate debated the fates of Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau in a rare Friday sitting.

During the debate, Brazeau told senators that Carignan offered him a “backroom deal” whereby he would receive a lesser sentence if he apologized in the Senate for his inappropriate spending. Carignan has said Brazeau misunderstood him.

The Prime Minister’s Office released a statement Sunday, reiterating its support for the original motions.

“We remain firm on this important point: Senators who have already been found to have claimed inappropriate expenses should not be collecting a public paycheque,” said PMO spokesperson Jason MacDonald in an email. “They know what they did is wrong, that’s why the prime minister supports the Senate motion and wants to see them vote on it.”

And that vote may come as early as next week. When senators will return to the red chamber Monday, they will address a government motion to fast-track a vote on the senators’ punishments.

“That doesn’t seem to me to be a fair process or due process,” Cowan said. “Imagine if a judge were to say: ‘Well that’s fine, you can argue all you want but I’m not going to hear anything more after a certain point.’ “